The Pope’s Restaurateur

A legend in the Chicago-area culinary community, Phil Stefani will be exporting his talents to Italy as one of two partners in a ground-breaking restaurant on Vatican property.

“There’s only one Chicago restaurateur who has the connections you need in Italy. It’s Phil Stefani.”

That’s what Art Smith, known as “Oprah’s Chef,” recalls being told, and the two restaurateurs formed a partnership to create a unique-in-the-world restaurant on Vatican land near Rome. The restaurant’s mission is to honor the late Pope Francis’ vision of environmental sustainability, and the project has Pope Leo’s full support.

Stefani, whose ancestors hail from Lucca, has opened about 25 restaurants in his 45 years in the industry, including Stefani Prime and Tavern on Rush, and has served four U.S. presidents. Celebrity chef Smith heads six restaurants, including Reunion by Chef Art Smith at Navy Pier, and two nonprofits, and has cooked for numerous A-list celebrities, including Lady Gaga.

With their new adventure, they’ll be opening the as-yet-unnamed restaurant in another country, cooking for an audience ranging from tourists to international dignitaries to the pope himself. And they’ll have to make the business a model of environmental stewardship to help execute the late Pope Francis’ vision.

“Obviously I’m honored to have this opportunity bestowed on me,” says Stefani, 75. “It’s indescribable. I don’t think there’s a person in the world who wouldn’t want to have this project, and for me as a Catholic and knowing the history of Castel Gandolfo, I feel especially blessed.”

The idea for all this started with Pope Francis, who in 2015 wrote a papal encyclical, or letter, Laudato Si’, that urged all people, not just Catholics, to care for nature, the planet and by extension, its people.

Putting words on paper wasn’t enough for the pontiff, however. Francis set aside part of the papal grounds at Castel Gandolfo — a town about 16 miles from Rome that has served as the summer residence of the popes for more than 400 years — to be transformed into a model of sustainability. He wanted the orchards and farmland to produce food and offer training in sustainable agricultural practice to workers who were to be hired mainly from marginalized populations.

One of Francis’ ideas for environmental development, which he called Borgo Laudato Si’, with borgo meaning hamlet, was to allow tourists and anyone interested in environmentalism to visit and learn. Borgo Laudato Si’ Officially launched in September.

The Stefani-Smith project, which will be the sole restaurant at Borgo Laudato Si’, is due to open by Easter, April 5. The restaurant will be located in a 12,000-square-foot building, one of three already built on the grounds. Work was scheduled to start in January to build out the kitchen and the seating areas, Stefani says.

Plans call for creating a stand-up caffe and panino bar as well as a sit-down restaurant, to be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The restaurant will cater private functions in the evening.

The menu will feature 70% Italian food, 20% American food and 10% Peruvian food, Stefani says, the last two to honor Pope Leo’s time in the United States and Peru. And the rumors that it will offer a Chicago hot dog are true, he says. Ketchup will not be provided.

The 50 acres of farmland and 85 acres of orchards at Borgo Laudato Si’, as well as a greenhouse with 3,000 plants, will be a plentiful source of fresh food for the restaurant, Stefani says. Cattle grazing on the land will be a source of milk and cheese. But the animals at Borgo Laudato Si’ won’t be killed for food, so the restaurateurs will seek local Italian vendors for the eatery’s meat and fish.

“We (Borgo Laudato Si’) have chickens and turkeys, and they’ll lay eggs, and there’s 1,500 olive trees where we produce olive oil already. We’ll follow the rules of sustainability to the best of our ability,” Stefani says, adding that he and Smith are still exploring how to do that.

Smith and Stefani marvel at the tale of how they got connected to the project.

It started, Smith says, when he wrote the cookbook “Back to the Table,” around 2000. Smith had a connection to the Bush family because he had cooked for former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and former First Lady Barbara Bush chose Smith’s book as a selection for her reading program.

Around 2011, the Bushes arranged for an NBC executive and a Catholic priest to dine at Smith’s former Chicago restaurant Table 52.

“So it was through Barbara Bush that I met Fr. Manny,” Smith says, referring to Rev. Manuel Dorantes of Chicago. Pope Francis appointed him director of the Higher Education Center at Laudato Si’ In Italy in 2024, according to Chicago Catholic.

Smith says he helped Fr. Manny with various charitable projects over the years, and last March Fr. Manny called.

“He says, we’re going to have a restaurant, would you be interested in that,” Smith recalled. Smith flew to Italy within days, told Fr. Manny he’d like to cook for him and to invite some people. As he served the fried chicken he’s known for, Smith met some of the guests: Cardinal Fabio Baggio and Sister Alessandra Smerilli, both administrators of Borgo Laudato Si!, and a then-cardinal named Robert Prevost, who told Smith that he, too, was from Chicago.

Back in Chicago, Smith says he heard from Fr. Manny and then thought, “I can’t do this on my own. I’m not Italian. I’m good at ideas … but I need a partner.”

He phoned Mary Kay Bonoma at the Illinois Restaurant Association, who recommended Stefani, who was enthusiastic, and a partnership was born.

Stefani had planned to fly to Italy around April, but Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025, and he never got to meet him. Cardinal Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, and he decided to continue the Borgo Laudato Si’ program and restaurant.

Stefani and Smith started discussions with Fr. Dorantes in May, Stefani says. Smith credited Stefani with using family connections to find an Italian lawyer to get the restaurant contract signed in August — when Italy largely shuts down for vacation.

Stefani says he has met Pope Leo three times, including one proud visit when he got to introduce his family members to the pontiff at the Vatican.

His children, Anthony Stefani and Gina Stefani Ilic, will be managing the operations of Stefani’s five Chicago restaurants while Stefani spends about two weeks of every month at Borgo Laudato Si’, along with Smith.

“It’s a tremendous honor to have the chance to do this project,” Stefani says. “I’ve been opening up restaurants for 45 years, but the one thing no one will ever be able to do is duplicate this.

“This will be the one and only, and it’s an achievement Art and I will share.”

The above article appears in the March 2026 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture.

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